Meltdown (Extinction #1)

by Paul Bryce

  Decided, they headed for the boat. It was tied up near a rocky outcrop near where John had been fishing.

  John and Terry carried Jane using their tent, rolled up to make a stretcher. It sagged in the middle but it worked. They boat wasn’t big enough to take them all, so they’d decided John and Terry would go with Jane. John as the medic and Terry because he was good with navigation. The others would stay.

  They had two radios. One would go with the boat and the other would stay on the island.

  John’s mind was racing. I’ve got to get her to the mainland. Even if there is a curfew, even if there is some kind of infection over there I can't believe they would turn us away. We have a critically ill woman.

  When they got to the boat John and Terry lifted Jane in, and laid her flat on the bottom with her head supported by some rolled up bedding. They’d had to pull out a couple of the seats to get her in, but they’d been so rotten it had been easy work.

  I’ll go with a proper company next time thought John if there is a next time … for any of us

  Jane was semi-delirious now. John felt her forehead. She was burning up. The infection was in her blood and spreading, but at least she’d stopped wheezing. John jumped in, and sat near the front of the boat, where he could keep an eye on Jane. Terry wedged himself in the back, one hand on the outboard motor.

  The boat was tied up around one of the larger rocks. Bill untied them, and then he, Karly and Robbie pushed them off.

  Terry started up the motor, took a bearing and they headed off. The others stood on the beach and watched the leave.

  Bill looked up at the darkening sky “Looks like a storm is coming” he said. Karly and Robbie ignored him.

  Terry pointed ahead. “Look John,” he said “you can see the mainland from here. Its just over a mile due South. Should be no problem,” he said.

  “It’s what happens when we get there I’m worried about.” said John. He looked down at Jane. She was moaning, mumbling something – her lips were starting to swell again now. Jesus we need to get her help now thought John.

  Terry steered the boat towards the grey smudge of land in the distance. Then they moved away from the island.

  Chapter 2

  They got about half a mile from the shore and Terry said “we're taking in water!”

  “What?” said John “Where?”

  “There” said Terry “pointing just left of Jane’s head. Water was flooding in. It wasn’t just a trickle it was already half way up the side of her face – about 6 inches deep. “Shit!” John reached down to lift Jane’s head up. He slid her back until she was lying at about 45 degrees – supported by the side of the boat. “Christ, its flooding in” he said. “Didn’t you check it before we left?”

  “There wasn’t time to check it. Anyway I was out in it yesterday it was fine then.”

  They were sinking fast.

  “Find the hole” said John “see if you can block it up”. Terry stuck his hands in the water searching for the leak but it was hopeless, the water was almost a foot deep now, and their kit was floating around blocking his view.

  “Start bailing” shouted John. They both grabbed containers from the survival kit, and started bailing water out of the boat, as fast as they could. But it was no good. They were still sinking. Water was coming in much faster than they could get it out.

  After a few minutes Terry said “We've got to head back”.

  “We can't” said John “she's has to get to hospital.”

  “We're not going to make it to the mainland” Terry said “I’m not even sure we can make it back to the island. If we don't turn around now we'll all drown - Jane for sure.”

  John sighed and wiped the sweat of his forehead, “Ok” he said “Let’s turn back.”

  But she’s going to die John a voice inside his head said.

  They turned around, heading back to the shoreline, but by this stage the water was lapping up over the sides. They were still about a quarter of a mile from the beach.

  “Capsize the boat” said John

  “What” said Terry “Why?”

  “We’re sinking Terry” he said “can’t do anything about that now. If it sinks we’ll have to swim back to shore.”

  “How about Jane” said Terry “she’s unconscious and my lifeguard skills aren’t up to getting her back.”

  “That’s why we should do it,” said John “If we capsize the boat it’ll float. The bottom is pretty flat. If we can get Jane on top we can drag the boat and her back to the shore.”

  There was no time left. ”Ok” said Terry. John held Jane while Terry rocked the boat. After three attempts it capsized and they all fell into the water. Jane slipped out of John’s grasp for a second and started to sink, but he grabbed her, dragged her back up to the surface and between them they man-handled her onto the bottom of the now capsized boat.

  Then they both noticed something. There were three neat round holes in the bottom about the size of a dime. There were fresh drill marks around each hole.

  “Someone has drilled holes in the boat!” said Terry. “It wasn’t an accident. It was deliberate! Man, someone sabotaged the boat!” His voice was rising with panic.

  John stared at the holes in disbelief. They were smooth, round drilled. He couldn’t think of any innocent explanation. It wasn’t rot. If it had been the wood would be brittle and damaged, like the boat seats they’d had to pull out. But, apart from the three holes, the bottom of the boat was perfectly smooth and undamaged. He reached over and pushed his finger through one. He could feel the rough edges where the drill bit had cut through the wood.

  Someone had done it deliberately. Damn, some-one tried to drown us? But there’s no-one else on the island. It can’t be one of the group, can it?

  John looked over at Terry. They were both hanging onto the sides of the upturned boat, treading water. Jane hadn’t moved. She was still lying unconscious on the flat bottom of the boat.

  “We can’t spend time on this now” said John “we need to get back.” Terry nodded, and they both kicked hard swimming for shore, dragging the boat along with them.

  They were half with there with about 400 yards to go when John felt something grab his leg and pull him down. His head went under the water, and before he had time to react he was being pulled down. He reached out and grabbed the side of the boat, pulled himself up so his head was clear of the water, and kicked out hard. But whatever had hold of him wouldn’t let go. Damn what is it? he thought. He knew it wasn’t a shark because he could still feel his foot. A shark would have bitten it straight off, not yank on it. Besides it felt like a something had hold of him.

  “What is it man?” said Terry.

  “Something’s got hold of me” said John “I can’t shake it off”. Then he felt something grab his other leg. It was definitely grabbed. He was sure of it this time. Whatever had him started working its way up his legs pulling itself up. He looked down. He could see something, but the water was so choppy it was difficult to see what. He could have sworn it was a head though. A smooth, white head.

  “It’s still got me Terry!” he shouted “I don’t know what it is but I can’t shake it.“ Terry was by his side now. He kicked out as hard as he could and hit it with a squelch. Like kicking a squid he said later. It’s grip on John weakened. Then the both started battering it as hard and fast as they could. Terry kicking it over and over, and John punching from above.

  Finally John felt the grip slip. “Now!” he said “its weakening”. They put in four or five more frenzied blows and it was gone. They floated there, holding onto the edge of the capsized boat, trying to get their breath back. “Fuck man” said Terry, “what was that?”

  “I don’t know” said John “but I think we should keep this to ourselves for now. The others have enough to worry about without adding … whatever that was to it”.

  Terry didn’t say anything. He looked like he’d had enough for one day. r />
  ***

  20 minutes later they’d make it back to the shore.

  John and Terry finally reached the beach, exhausted. Karly, Bill and Robbie came running out to meet them. They lifted Jane off the boat and carried her up onto the beach.

  “What the hell happened?” said Bill

  “Someone scuppered the boat. They drilled holes in it man!” said Terry.

  “You’re kidding me” said Bill.

  “No there were three holes drilled in the bottom, freshly drilled” said Terry.

  “I was out in the boat yesterday and it was fine.”

  “Are you saying someone deliberately sabotaged the boat Terry?” said Bill.

  “Yes”

  “What about you doc what do you think?”

  “The holes looked drilled to me Bill”

  “Shit!” said Karly. She looked scared.

  “What are we going to do John” said Karly.

  “Yeah John what do you think,” said Terry.

  Why is everyone looking at me - I'm not the leader

  “Maybe it wasn't one of us,” said Robbie. “Maybe someone else is on the island?”

  “Its deserted” said Bill.

  “How do we know that?” said Robbie.

  They all looked at each other. The ugly truth was one of them had betrayed the group.

  “I don’t suppose anyone is going to admit to this” said Bill. No-one said anything. Everyone looked uncomfortable except Bill who just looked pissed.

  “Look we know it was deliberate” said Karly “even I can see those holes were recently drilled. But it might not have been one of us. We don’t know we’re alone here do we? We’ve kept to one small area of the island. There could easily be someone hiding out in the forest.”

  “Yeah but why” said Terry “why would anyone want to do this?” There were quiet for a long moment.

  John rubbed his face. It felt like the sweat and dirt were ingrained “Look” he said “we've got to leave aside the issue of the saboteur for now. If it is one of us then we have to trust in their humanity to be honest and own up.”

  “Yeah right” said Terry. John held up his hand “if it’s not one of us then … well we don’t have the time or energy to go on a manhunt.”

  “We can't survive here. We’ve only here only been here a week and already struggling.”

  “What are our options” said Terry.

  “The way I see it,” said Bill, “we need to get help. Like I said before we need to contact the outside world and get airlifted out. ”

  “If there's a problem on the mainland we just need to by-pass it if we can make contact with the outside world, I mean outside of the locality, we can try to get airlifted.

  “What do you think they meant by infection?” said Robbie.

  “What?” said Bill, annoyed. “that won't help us now.”

  “Yeah but it must be pretty bad if they're shooting people.”

  “It’s probably some kind of tropical disease. There's load of that shit in the tropics some of it pretty nasty,” he said.

  We need to get home. To do that we’ve got to make contact with the outside world and find out what is going on the mainland.

  We need to get Jane help.

  Find out who the saboteur is

  “OK Doc, what do we do?” said Terry.

  “Ok Terry keep trying the radio. Keep checking different frequencies. You've got to be able to pick up more than one recorded message.”

  “And Robbie keep checking your mobile. You've had a signal up till now hopefully you'll get one again.”

  “How about a signal fire” said Karly.

  “OK, good idea.” said John

  “And an SOS” said Robbie.

  “Great lets do that as well.”

  “We'll need to survive while we're waiting. We've been struggling up till now but we can't fuck about any more.”

  “We need shelter, water, fire and food and we'll need to keep out strength up

  “How about looking after Jane?” said Karly “you can't do it all yourself John.”

  “Thanks Karly,” he was grateful for that “how about we take shifts, she can't be left alone.

  ***

  It was just after dawn three days later and John was on his way down to the beach.

  They’d found some netting washed up, and had been leaving it out overnight to catch fish. There was always the risk that the fish would spoil if they were left too long dead in the netting, but John was getting no-where with spear-fishing, and anyway he couldn’t spare the time for that now.

  He hoped there were at least a few fish in the nets. They really needed the protein. Recently they’d been living off coconut, which would keep them going for a few days but they'd soon get diarrhoea.

  It would be easy to get dehydrated in this heat he thought. And that was the last thing they need they needed.

  Since the attempt to leave the island failed , John had tried to keep everyone motivated, and doing something. He was scared what would happen if they just gave in. So he was glad Bill had got a signal fire going, and Robbie had made a giant SOS out of stones and bits of debris from the beach. It kept them occupied. It stopped them from going crazy with worry, and you never know it might just work, if anyone is out there.

  Jane had been drifting in and out of consciousness. She’d wake up long enough to drink something then pass out again. One of them was always with her, but there wasn’t much they could do.

  He gathered up the nets pulling bits of debris that had got stuck. They usually caught more plastic bottles than fish. Terry liked to joke they could start up their own recycling plant.

  Of course there had been some tension. Bill had hinted a few times that Terry had sabotaged the boat. Once they nearly came to blows. And they were still struggling for food and water.

  But the worst thing is not knowing what the fuck is going on out there thought John.

  Then a torn off piece of paper caught his eye. He pulled it out of the netting: something was written on it.

  From the Indonesia Freedom of Information Group

  This is an urgent and important message for any survivors.

  You may not know this because all TV, radio and communication channels are down.

  There has been a worldwide pandemic. Nearly 100% of the world’s population have been infected. There is, as far as we know, no central government left, in any nation state.

  The infection is a mutated strain of MRSA bacteria. It is resistant to all known antibiotics. Repeat there is no treatment.

  That was where the message ended. The rest had been ripped off.

  John stared at the message for a long moment. He was having trouble taking in the sudden and massive change in the world as they knew it. A few days ago he and a few other survival nuts were getting a break from the real world of computers, mobile phones and jobs. They’d swapped city stress for the challenge of surviving on their own on an uninhabited island. It had been a lot harder than they’d expected, but it made sense. They’d spend a few weeks here, getting back to nature, then it was back to their old lives, right?

  But now everything had changed. If this message was true they had no real lives to get back to. What had it said? There is, as far as we know, no central government left. Could that really be right?

  Nearly everyone was infected with a mutant strain of MRSA? John knew about MRSA, so did every doctor. Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, what the media liked to call a superbug. It was resistant to nearly all antibiotics.

  But this wasn’t news. For years doctors had prescribed powerful antibiotics for coughs and colds, and the farming industry poured them into their livestock, when they should have been saved for when they were really needed. The bugs just did what they always did. They evolved becoming resistant to each antibiotic.

  But MRSA wasn’t that harmful. Yes it was very difficult to kill, but it was only a danger to you if you we
re already sick with something like cancer for AIDS. It wasn’t a problem for healthy people.

  So what had happened?

  Then it hit him. There was no-one out there coming to get them. They couldn’t get anyone on the radio because there was no-one. There was no mobile phone signal because the phone companies weren’t operating. The tour company hadn’t been in touch because there was no company. They were alone. No-one was coming to help them.

  He fell to the floor. He couldn’t breathe. He felt like someone was sitting on his chest. Jesus is this it. Is it all over?

  He looked down the beach at the remains of the signal fire and the SOS laid out in stone and bits of debris to attract a passing plane or helicopter. He almost laughed. It had all been a colossal waste of time. There was no-one out there to send a message to. He ran back to camp.

  Could this get any worse?

  Chapter 3

  30 minutes later they were all gathered sitting or standing in the clearing they’d used as a camp since they arrived on the island. The embers of last night’s fire were still glowing in the fireplace. John had just told them what he’d found. They hadn’t come to terms with it yet.

  “The infection is worldwide” said John again, “It’s not just Bali or Indonesia. It’s everywhere. If the message is right there’s nothing left out there.”

  “What does that mean?” said Karly “I mean why is there no government? There’ve been loads of epidemics in the past, right? Sure lots of people died but no, no central government left, how can that have happened?

  “I don’t know” said John “You’re right Karly there have been lots of pandemics. There’s a influenza one every eighty years or so, and that’s much more virulent than MRSA.”

  “what’s virulent?” said Robbie

  “more dangerous” said John “it kills more people than MRSA”

  “What’s MRSA” said Robbie.

  “For God’s sake kid” said Bill

  “It’s OK” said John he needs to know. Its a superbug” he said, “that means its resistant to antibiotics. That’s not news it’s the effect it’s having on people that is new.”

  “But what is that” said Karly, “we still don’t know what it does. I mean is it just killing people outright or are there millions of sick people out there.”